Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis, whose real name is Hugh Anthony Cregg III, (born July 5, 1950 in New York City) is a musician and singer. He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis & The News, a rock group based in San Francisco, California that was particularly popular during the 1980s. He also played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.
Huey grew up in Marin County, California. In 1967, preparing to graduate from The Lawrenceville School, Huey applied and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, having attained a perfect score of 800 on the mathematics portion of the SAT, and an 810 on the verbal portion (directly attributed to his lyrical genius) but on the advice of his father, he postponed enrolling in college, and instead he headed for Europe. As he hitchhiked around the continent, he learned to play the harmonica whilst waiting for rides. Huey became an accomplished blues player, and gave his first concert in Europe, earning $150 for it before returning to the United States.
On his return, Huey entered Cornell, joining the engineering program. While there, he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played with Orleans and King Harvest. Huey soon lost interest in college though. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm, and in December 1969 he dropped out of Cornell, moving back to the San Francisco area - his aim was to continue playing music, but along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry and natural foods.
In 1971, Huey joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the name Huey Lewis. The Lewis is for his mother Magda Cregg's boyfriend, Beat Generation poet Lew(is) Welch, who he considered his stepfather. Sean Hopper joined the band in 1972 - other members of the band were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Huey played harmonica with the band and only sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) were Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Mario Cipollina and Bill Gibson were band members).
In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles - they had their 'big break' in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe - he convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. But Clover was not successful in Britain, the band arrived just as their folk-rock sound (known as pub rock in Britain) was being replaced by punk rock. They recorded two albums for the British Phonogram label, both albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, but they both bombed.
While Huey went on vacation, the rest of Clover backed Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim is True. The band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover broke up.
In 1978 Huey was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madera, California, doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot, along with future members of the News. After recording the song 'Exo-Disco' (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus), Huey got a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records, and Bob Brown became his manager. Huey Lewis and the American Express formed in 1979, with the same line-up as the News - the band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), but on Brown's advice, they changed their name again - and Huey Lewis and the News was born.
The band's third LP, Sports (1983), was one of the best-selling pop releases of the 1980s. It was followed up by another big seller, Fore! (1986).
As well as singing lead vocals and playing harmonica with the band, Huey also writes or co-writes many of their songs. Outside the band, his interests include golf, baseball, fishing and owning a racing car.
Huey has made appearances in several movies. The first was a cameo in Back to the Future (1985). The band also recorded two songs for the soundtrack, including the hit "The Power Of Love." Huey's second movie appearance was in Shortcuts (1993). Huey had a much more significant role and a very memorable scene in it. In addition, Huey appeared in the first few minutes of the movie Sphere (1998) as the helicopter pilot. After that role, he had a large part in Shadow of a Doubt (1998) which appeared on Showtime. He had an uncredited role in Dead Husbands (1998) as the husband killed during the opening credits.
Duets (2000) was probably his largest role in a fairly high-profile movie. In it, he played Gwyneth Paltrow's father, Ricky Dean, a Karaoke-hustler. Duets led to the smash-hit duet "Cruisin'" (a cover of the Smokey Robinson classic) with Paltrow. Unreleased as a single, the song nevertheless reached the top spot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart. Next, he appeared in a film titled ".com for Murder", starring Nastassja Kinski.
He is married and lives in Ross, California and has two children - Kelly (born 1983) and Austin (born 1985).
His mother, Magda Cregg, was the partner of the poet Lew Welch.
Albums
- Huey Lewis & The News (1980)
- Picture This (1982) #13 US
- Sports (1983) #1 US
- Back To The Future Soundtrack (1985)
- Fore! (1986) #1 US
- Small World (1988) #11 US
- Hard At Play (1991) #27 US
- Four Chords And Several Years Ago (1994) #55 US
- Time Flies: The Best Of Huey Lewis And The News (1996) #185 US
- Plan B (2001) #165 US
- Live at 25 (2005)
Singles
- "Do You Believe In Love" (1982) #7 US
- "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" (1982) #36 US
- "Workin' For A Livin'" (1982) #41 US
- "Heart And Soul" (1983) #8 US
- "I Want A New Drug" (1984) #6 US
- "The Heart Of Rock 'N Roll" (1984) #6 US
- "If This Is It" (1984) #6 US
- "Walking On A Thin Line" (1984) #18 US
- "The Power Of Love" (1985) #1 US - 2 weeks
- "Stuck With You" (1986) #1 US - 3 weeks
- "Hip To Be Square" (1986) #3 US
- "Jacob's Ladder" (1987) #1 US - 1 week
- "I Know What I Like" (1987) #9 US
- "Doin' It (All For My Baby)" (1987) #6 US
- "Perfect World" (1988) #3 US
- "Small World" (1988) #25 US
- "Couple Days Off" (1991) #11 US
- "It Hit Me Like A Hammer" (1991) #21 US